Category: movies and culture

MY DIY Halloween Get Up: Katana from Suicide Squad!

~ Emmie Reve ~ 2 Comments

This summer when Suicide Squad came out, it crossed over into the Batman universe with characters like Harley Quin and the Joker. The premise of the film was super villains joining forces to complete a mission that could save the world…sounds more pulled together than the film’s execution of the story…but visually it was still a treat.

I am not really into super heroes that much…but the year before I did a simple Tomie costume, a character from a manga series by Junji Ito…so I couldn’t resist making another Japanese inspired costume when I found out there was a Japanese hero in Suicide Squad: Katana!  Forget Harley Quin, one of the most done of female costumes of this year, but the character of Katana; a deadly and strong willed woman of honor who has superior samurai skills was the way to go for me.

Suicide Squad looked great visually, and the costumes had a street vibe interpretation!
Suicide Squad looked great visually, and the costumes had a street vibe interpretation!
Karen fukuhara, an new unknown actress took over the role well.
Karen fukuhara, an new unknown actress took over the role well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The back story on Katana is is that she was originally the daughter of a great samurai, who while being trained in the skills of fighting, also won the hearts of two brothers.  They both sought her out, and in the end, she chose the more honest man to marry and have kids with…leaving the rejected brother to be jealous and turn even more evil. There was a dual between the brothers and Katana’s husband was killed by his evil brother, and the children died in the resulting fire.  After she lost her husband and kids, Katana became a force for good, using her magic sword (who still possesses her husband’s soul) to fight evil as a means to cope with her tragic loss.  Katana has worked with Batman, Birds of Prey  and for the movie Suicide Squad she was Rick Flag’s body guard.  Anyways, enough about her back story, let’s take a look at my costume.

This is my take on Katana from Suicide Squad. Am I menacing?
This is my take on Katana from Suicide Squad. Am I menacing?

I made this costume mostly with clothes I already had.  Such as a white tank/top, tight black jeans/pants and a black bomber style jacket. I pinned it in on the bottom to create a cropped effect.  I also already had the sword from a previous costume (Kyo from Black Bird) The only thing I actually bought was the white half mask, the red sash, and gold metallic paint for the flowers.  I painted the red dot on the mask with red nail polish and reshaped and cut the eyes to resemble Katana’s mask more.  Then I painted gold petal shapes on duct tape and then cut them out and stuck them in a flower pattern in the bottom right corner of the jacket. Then I looped the long red scarf around the arms of the jacket and pinned in place.  All in all, this costume only cost me $10 for the scarf, paint, and plain white mask! I had everything else!  But it was really fun getting to be Katana for a day on Halloween.

What DIY costumes have you made in the past that was both cheap and made use of things you had?

 

Summer’s over: Views on single life from movie View from the Top!

~ Emmie Reve ~ Leave a comment

This was my first summer as a single girl in about 5 years, can you imagine? I have been in a long term relationship since then that ended early this year in the spring, and I have never looked back.  Not even once.  How is it that I have found so much comfort in being on my own, when the whole world seems to be looking for relationships and romance?  I don’t know, but the reality of it is…a relationship is a lot of work!  As women, we put so much into dating and our boyfriends, and when we think about it, how productive would we be if we were single, spent our time on ourselves, our work and career, our family and friends?  We could finally be the “super” women that is expected of us–to be everything and more.

I recently saw the movie “View from the Top” again, as it was playing TV, and I remembered why I liked it.  It was on the W Network, which is notorious for showcasing sappy rom coms that bombed with critics and viewers alike.  And the movie “View from the Top”, from 2003, was no exception.  It was a critical flop, but I actually really loved this movie many reasons: It talked about beauty, ambition–it was about a woman’s journey for love and career, and it was also pretty funny (Mike Myers was in it). Donna Jenkins (Gwyneth Paltrow) is a woman with a mission to become a flight attendant, but not just any flight attendant, but to be the best.  She has to choose between the man who loves her and her career destiny, and is back stabbed by her girl friend along the way, hence an over the top cat fight scene with Christina Applegate.  Loved it. So much fun. (**spoilers of the movie ahead, beware…)

I like the retro glam of this movie...as it seems to make reference to the hey days of flying...
I like the retro glam of this movie…as it seems to make reference to the hey days of flying…

Reasons why “View from the Top” was not a turkey: (*spoilers)

  1. It is about following your dreams. Whatever they might be. Donna wanted to be a flight attendant, and loved the glamour and worldly prestige it gave her: to be elegant, classy and well-traveled, which seemed to be the antidote of her upbringing in a trailer park in a no-where town.  Even if you have no desire to be a flight attendant, it is a metaphor to go for your dreams whatever they may be…and to be ambitious about it.

    A great scene from the movie with her gal pals as they try to get out of their small town beginnings...
    A great scene from the movie with her gal pals as they try to get out of their small town beginnings…
  2. Donna put her career before her man. Here she was, with Ted (Mark Ruffalo) telling her he was in love with her, and to stay with him in Cleveland, but she chose to go to Paris, as a first class flight attendant, because she believed it was her true calling.  She put her needs first.

    Mark Ruffalo before being the Hulk. Just the perfect boyfriend to tempt a gal to lose sight of her goals!
    Mark Ruffalo before being the Hulk. Just the perfect boyfriend to tempt a gal to lose sight of her goals!
  3. After realizing she made a mistake, Donna takes responsibility for it and fixes it.  When Donna realized she loved Ted back and had proven to herself she could be the top at what she does, only then does she go back to Ted in Cleveland, and tells him she wants to be with him.  It proves she is on her own journey, and not on his.

    When Donna finally makes it! love the perfect make-up and hair. Gone were her tacky trailer park ways.
    When Donna finally makes it! love the perfect make-up and hair. Gone were her tacky trailer park ways.
  4. Paltrow gives a great performance on the eternal struggle of beauty vs brains vs ambition and is always super pretty, whether in her hicktown get ups, or in her evolution to classy Parisian lady. Fashion and make-up wise, what more can you ask for?

    Go girl, you classy fashionista! What a gorgeous departure from how she used to look. What a make-over!
    Go girl, you classy fashionista! What a gorgeous departure from how she used to look. What a make-over!

But back to my own thoughts of my summer on my own:  I’ve loved it.  I’ve launched my company selling online cosmetics with natural ingredients: dreamecosmetics.com, spent quality time with friends and family, and have just realized how nice it is to not have a boyfriend.  To be my own person, trying to make a living, and trying to live in this world. 🙂  I am not saying that “View from the Top” was negative for making Donna need to be with Ted in conclusion (as so many people had complained). I respect all choices of women, but boy am I glad to be on my own and aiming for the top, with no regrets or desire to settle any time soon.

Are glasses as cool and cute as fringe fashion trends say?

~ Emmie Reve ~ Leave a comment
I don't watch New Girl with Zoey Deschanel, but well, we can't talk about the glasses trend with out seeing her adorkable ways!
I don’t watch New Girl with Zoey Deschanel, but well, we can’t talk about the glasses trend with out seeing her adorkable ways!

When I worked at this designer/hipster store in Toronto a few years ago, I really saw the trend for wearing glasses go up.  It was a way to look cool, smart and cute, and it completed a fashion look.  Girls were all wearing big glasses with dark rims to look cute in an fringe way, but I was always left out of this trend since I have perfect vision.  Yes, by default, I never had glasses growing up or anytime because I didn’t need them.  I was not achieving my lack of eye apparel look by wearing contacts either as some people assumed. The truth was the only glasses I could ever wear were non-prescription “fake” ones that didn’t come out until recent years.

Rewind even further back in time to my art college years, when I was quite shy and not very confident.  I worried sometimes about how I would be perceived by classmates.  I even contemplated then, before glasses were in,  to wear fake glasses to help me to look “smarter” among my peers.  So now that the fashion trends have given their permission to wear fake glasses, I have recently bought a pair of optical quality non-prescription glasses, they are scratch resistant and uv protecting. And well, I kinda like them.  I really have to get used to wearing them though. I have been naked faced all of my years!

So, these are not really the black rimmed glasses I saw everyone wearing a while back, but I kinda like their boldness and colour. (:
So, these are not really the black rimmed glasses I saw everyone wearing a while back, but I kinda like their boldness and colour. (:

I read somewhere that eyeglass wearers always get protection from glare and uv  because they wear their prescription everyday for vision.  Us visually perfect people never get that kind of protection on an ongoing basis.  We get all the rain, wind, snow and sun in our eyes, and the full glare of our computer screens.  So o ther than glasses giving a fashion boost and vision correction, might they also give a health advantage too?  That’s not fair to those of us that face the harsh world with an unprotected naked eye day in and day out!

Glasses are seen as cool, but on the other hand, I also think back about how that is not always the case.  Most gorgeous gals in mainstream movies/music today and in the past don’t wear vision corrective apparatuses. I think technically, not wearing glasses is still seen as the norm when describing a good looking person.  But still, it is nice for me to see the success of hip and happening fashionistas that are just cool enough to pull off the glasses look and propel a trend that has fringe beauty appeal.  And with fashion’s green light, I can now participate too with my fake eye glasses on days that I feel like it!

What do you think?  Do you like the look of glasses? Are they fashionable? Or would you rock no glasses/contacts any day?